Spectacles and side-saddles, we are quaintly informed, became common in England in the reign of Richard the Second. The ancients, however, knew the power of burning-glasses, and one cunning rogue, we are told, discovered a new way to pay old debts, by means of a round stone or glass used in lighting of fires, with which he melted the bond, written, as usual in those days, on wax. Their burning glasses were spheres, either solid or full of water, their foci were consequently very short and confused. A long interval occurred before spectacles were constructed, and three hundred years elapsed between the invention of spectacles and telescopes. Our eyes should have our nicest and most tender care, since it is by them we are familiarized with objects of the most exquisite interest and beauty, abounding on the earth we inhabit, and in the starry firmament above us:— “My soul, while Nature’s beauties feast mine eyes, To Nature’s God contemplative shall rise.”—DODSLEY. The faculty of sight should be estimated and regarded by us with more than ordinary care, when we reflect that it is the medium through which the most exalted and gratifying impressions are received; and our watchful regard to its healthful preservation and agreeable exercise is the more required from the consideration, that while to its admirable organization and delicate sense of perception we stand so much indebted, those very qualities render it extremely sensitive to injudicious treatment. It would be a wholesome, fair, and proper regulation, to restrain all from practising as opticians but those practically conversant with the production and application of lenses for the purpose of aiding the exercise of sight. It is considered indispensable for the surgeon and medical practitioner to prepare for his profession by a course of study, reading, and practical operations, and to be subjected to an ordeal where his capabilities are examined and tested. Such an arrangement, though it _may_ sometimes be abused, guarantees to us practitioners who understand their duties; and thus are the many “ills which human flesh is heir to” alleviated and subdued, while those unfortunates who are practised upon by the empiric and miracle-monger, have their calamities aggravated, and their sufferings increased.